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Content of this pageThe government's nursing home policies imploded
with the Riverside nursing home scandal.
Examination of this scandal gives a fascinating
insight into the market, into Australian
regulations, into government processes and into the
way ideology, social processes and the people
involved in them inexorably progressed what
happened into a tragedy for all parties.

Australian
section

Illawong
Retirement Equity Pty Ltd
The Riverside Scandal

Mar 2000 Summing it
up

"In the long run, this will
probably do some good for the industry as a whole.

"Riverside has definitely been
the scapegoat. Before this, no one ever paid any attention to the
plight of elderly people."Evacuees face hospital trek Sunday Herald Sun March 12,
2000 (comment by residents family)

A Business:- The
Riverside scandal originated in a nursing home run by businessmen.
The reports suggest that at least one had a personality which
rendered him a risk. The focus was on profitability and they had no
insight into the relationship between costs and care.

That they were there at all was a consequence
of a shift in community perceptions in the Australian establishment.
This saw commercial enterprises gain in credibility and influence.
The commercial paradigm was seen to be viable in all contexts. It
became legitimate, even desirable to provide care for vulnerable
citizens through a mechanism whose primary aim was to profit from
their misfortune. This was in direct conflict with the ethos and the
understandings of the majority of those with experience, and actually
working in the area. It was sold to the public by calling it
reform.

Regulation:-
The regulatory
system introduced in 1997 was
misconceived, under-funded and legally vulnerable. It was a product
of an ideological belief in market systems and a political imperative
to apply them. It was designed to please the ideological
constituents, mainly the businessmen providing care. They contributed
to its design.

The accreditation system was intended to be
an industry improvement tool for motivated providers and not coercive
or a deterrent. Staff visited to remediate. Surprise visits and
Sanctions were a last resort.

This was largely impractical because of the
number of homes, the pressures to dysfunction and the costs. The
agency developed a complex documentary structure and rigid system for
measuring standards which was out of touch with the real world of
care and so became an imposition.

Politicians had learned nothing from the US
experience but could not claim ignorance. During the previous 7 to 10
years I had personally circulated vast numbers of reports to them.
These described the problems in the US market system and the failure
of similar regulatory structures. Instead they were heavily
influenced by trusted industry supporters like Andrew
Turnerand Doug
Moran whom they considered to be
credible authorities. None understood the critical difference between
a system designed to help vulnerable citizens and one for making
investors wealthy.

Those involved disregarded or did not
understanding the reasons for failure of similar systems over many
years. They had discounted the strong pressures to dysfunction which
develop in health and aged care markets.

Oversight was designed to help the businesses
on the assumption that they would be strongly motivated to comply
with standards. The homes were given ample opportunity to prepare for
infrequent visits. The system was set up to fail and it has failed.
Riverside is a good example.

The accreditation agency was closely aligned
with the political process. It was dealing with an unpredictable and
irascible minister who blamed everyone but herself. It is likely that
morale was low and that the agency had difficulty in employing and
keeping adequately trained staff.

Politics:- The
political system was one driven by ideology and political ambition.
Ministers political futures were determined by successfully
implementing ideological prescriptions in their portfolios. At this
time the all too flawed minister involved had leadership ambitions.
She had been aggressive in her criticism of others but as Riverside
showed she was readily panicked into precipitate action when her
credibility and future came under pressure.

She had no experience of aged care and was
very probably influenced by the disturbing Andrew Turner whose US
company Sun
Healthcare had been welcomed into
Australia to provide step down and nursing home care. Turner, an
eccentric market advocate had popularised
the misconception that you did not
need nursing skills to care for the elderly - a point of view
welcomed by politicians in the USA. Many thousands suffered
needlessly and died of neglect as a result. As in the USA the real
costs of providing adequate care to the elderly were grossly under
estimated.

The situation:-
The minister and her government had promised much and all parties
outside government were aware that she had not done what she had
promised. It was not working and there were many problems. Riverside
exposed the problems in a unique way and this received extensive
press coverage and intense criticism.

The divide:- I
have written elsewhere about the wide
divide between the perceptions of
businessmen and economists on the one hand, and nurses and patients
on the other. In Riverside we see multiple divides; the businessmen,
the politicians, the regulators, the nurses, the patients and
relatives, and medical and lay experts. Few of them seem able to
enter into the world of the other and as a consequence ineptitude and
stupidity work their sad magic to everyones cost.

The Story:- The
nursing home had been a recurrent problem for about 12 years and
nothing effective had been done about it. When nurses complained
about injuries to residents from the inept treatment of scabies the
department delayed and then set up a consultative practice.

Press publicity precipitated the minister
into ordering a long delayed and promised surprise visit. When the
kerosene baths were disclosed this became a major national scandal.
In the fallout the minister panicked and closed the home
precipitously and without any consideration of the consequences for
all involved. The entire process was mismanaged. The minister career
was truncated, nurses lost their jobs, the community lost their
resources, caring families were distanced or separated from their
spouses and parents, and many ended in homes which were no better
than Riverside.

I have arranged the material on this web page
under issues rather than chronologically. The background story is
summarised above and should be kept in mind to prevent
confusion.

Insights:- The
Riverside scandal more than any other example provides an insight
into the failure of our systems. If we can get beyond our tendency to
blame and point fingers, and accept our human fallibility then we
might come to grips with the multiple system failures which lie at
the root of some of the problems not only in aged care but in
politics and in our society.

Behind Riverside lies our inability to
confront the limitations in the one size fits all beliefs around
which we construct our social systems. As a consequence we repeatedly
attempt to patch the leaky bucket so that we dont have to
design another based on different principles. Riverside is no
exception.

Failure:- The new
market based system was less than three years old and clearly was not
working. There were serious problems in many homes and the system
which was designed to support the business community rather than
protect the residents was not putting these unsuitable people out of
business. The scandal at Riverside in 2000 was a good example and it
became the catalyst used to blow open the failure of the government's
controversial aged care agenda.

A major lesson from Riverside and multiple
other failed homes is the importance of suitable people, people
wanting to serve the community, part of that community and trusted by
it, and not driven by the desire to make themselves rich. These are
not the sort of people who enter a competitive marketplace or succeed
there. They will take their drive and motivation to an area where
they can realise their social selves in an area where their
dedication is recognised.

The story of the events is long and complex
but the insights gained are worth the effort.

The story of Riverside goes back several
years and involves not only poor care but bankruptcy. Who were these
people and what was their background?

It turns out they were businessmen, one
already highly suspect, and two accountants. This seems to be another
example of totally unsuitable people entering the sector from the
business community. The issue of aberrant individuals in aged care is
explored at greater length in relation to the companies
Saitta
Pty Ltd and Neviskia Pty Ltd and
Primelife.

The reports suggest that one director,
Vladymir Martyniuk, was removed from this position when the company
came out of liquidation in 1999 but his ownership was not terminated.
That this did not curtail his influence became apparent later. He
held the purse strings. The reports suggest that his partner, Howard
Rabinowitz, who claimed to be a prominent businessman continued to
run the nursing home. Within months things were as bad as
before.

We should not be surprised at this. When the
home was closed in March 2000, Vladymir Martyniuk emerged to attack
the decision and once again presented himself as a director. It was
then revealed that management was paralysed by disputes between the
directors and Rabinowitz on the one hand and two thirds owner
Martyniuk on the other. Not surprisingly the regulatory device of
barring a director, effective in a not for profit context, did not
reflect the realities of ownership power in the marketplace.
Ownership was hidden in a tangle of companies.

Rabinowitz:-
Rabinowitz was a well known businessman with a finger in many
pies. The reports suggest that he was prepared to spend money on the
home. He was a millionaire. He did not have the courage to meet and
speak with residents and their families.

Jul 1997 Other
companies

A duly convened meeting of
directors of Bintang Limited held on 9 July 1997, Mr Howard
Rabinowitz resignation as a director was accepted by the Board
effective 2 July 1997.ASX-Bintang Limited (BIN.AX) Resignation of Director.
Australian Stock Exchange Company Announcements July 31,
1997

Nov 1999 Another
venture

FLEDGLING developer New
Millennium Properties is set to give a strata title to the
historic Century Building - an art-deco office tower directly
opposite Melbourne Town Hall.
-------------------------
The project is being steered by Lightning Jack's main unit-holder,
Capital Funding Equity.

Its chief financial backers are
New Millennium directors Howard Rabinowitz, Michael Kinnon and
Langer Avery.Lightning sale of the Century. The Australian November 19,
1999

Mar 2000 Rabinowitz
managing Riverside

THE scandal at Melbourne's
Riverside Nursing Home had been "agonising" for one of its major
backers, Howard Rabinowitz, a millionaire property developer who
has also taken over the Lightning Jack Film Trust once associated
with Paul Hogan.
--------------------
Mr Rabinowitz, 65, took control of the management of Riverside
last year after rescuing it from liquidation.Scandal `agony' of home's owner. The Australian March 3,
2000

Mar 2000 Rabinowitz
would not meet angry relatives

Relatives of residents,
disgusted at management's refusal to attend a meeting with them on
Thursday night, said one of the options canvassed by a company
representative was the building of a new nursing home
nearby.

The granddaughter of a resident
said she had been told the operators considered it too expensive
to make the existing home comply with new accreditation
standards.

The nurse who spoke to The
Australian yesterday said the home's owner, Howard Rabinowitz, had
been at the nursing home on Thursday night but he did not meet
with relatives.Nurses were shocked by kero burns. The Australian March 4,
2000

Martyniuk and other
owners:- Actual ownership was initially far from clear. Two
accountants were the front men. Then Rabinowitz put up his hand.
Later still it became clear that Martyniuk owned two thirds of the
company and that there was a third owner.

Feb 2000 Accountants
put up their hands

Riverside Nursing Care Pty
Ltd is owned by a pair of accountants and investors: Paul
Grinwald, of Leaburn Avenue, Caulfield North, and John Wilson
Irving, of Valley Road, Skye. A receptionist at Mr Grinwald's
office said he was on holidays overseas.

The two men are listed in
Securities Commission documents as directors of Illawong
Retirement Equity Pty Ltd, which took over the company in January
last year after it had been in the hands of a liquidator for nine
months.Monitors Blew Whistle On Home 10 Months Ago The Age
February 26, 2000

Feb 2000 Rabinowitz
the proprietor

He (John Irving)
revealed that Caulfield North businessman Howard Rabinowitz
was the registered proprietor of the nursing home with the Federal
Health Department.

He defended Mr Rabinowitz,
saying he did not believe he should be held responsible for the
alleged abuses of residents.Bishop dismisses demands for funds. The Australian February
28, 2000

Apr 2000 More
information on owners

Department documents from
1993 list the proprietor of the home as Riverside Nursing Care Pty
Ltd and the company's then directors as Mr Vladymir Martyniuk, Mr
Bruce Walker and Mr Cecil King.

When residents were moved from
Riverside last month, the home was still being run by this
company, but its management had changed significantly.

Australian Securities and
Investments Commission records show that when patients were moved,
the directors were Mr Paul Grinwald and Mr John Irving, nominees
of the property developer, Mr Howard Rabinowitz. In a network of
interlocking companies and trusts, Mr Rabinowitz appears to own
one-third of the company and Mr Martyniuk up to
two-thirds.

Mr King said yesterday he had
disposed of his interest in the home in 1997.Nursing Home Under Scrutiny In '93 The Age April 6,
2000

Dysfunction and
bankruptcy:- The story behind the company
was disturbing and included a dysfunctional director and a
bankruptcy. One of the interesting titbits to emerge was that the
company at one time owed the department a lot of money.

Feb 2000 A sequence
of mismanagement

But a check of the home's
history would have found a sequence of mismanagement going back
years.
------------------
That liquidator was the Carlton-based insolvency accountant Mr
Greg Andrews. He said he had dealt with insolvency in a number of
nursing homes. In this one, he said, conditions were bad.

``I am not saying it was the
worst I have seen. Others were worse,'' he said. ``But as far as
government regulations were concerned, it was a total failure
across the board. Just as disturbing from a liquidator's point of
view was that it owed the federal Department of Health
$810,000.''

He said this was an
extraordinary debt for a nursing home.

Mr Andrews' report on management
of the home said the previous company management, under the
direction of Mr Vladimir Martyniuk, had been the reason for the
debt.Monitors Blew Whistle On Home 10 Months Ago The Age
February 26, 2000

Feb 2000 Martiniuk
barred from being a director

THE manager of the
Riverside Nursing Home was considered so inept that a liquidator
appointed to solve the company's mounting debt problems insisted
he be banned from managing the business for at least 12
months.

Vladymir Martiniuk, also a
part-owner of the business, was removed from his position in 1998
after liquidators called in by Riverside creditors discovered the
company owed more than $1.5 million.
----------------------
Mr Andrews said while Mr Martiniuk and co-owner Howard Rabinowitz
had extinguished the debt by 1999, he had felt compelled to impose
conditions on the deed of company operations, which allowed
Riverside to continue operating.

"Obviously there was some
disquiet with Mr Martiniuk's performance," Mr Andrews said
yesterday. "Really we were seeking undertakings for everybody's
benefit that he would not be returned to the management of this
nursing home for 12 months.

"There was also an undertaking
to spend $80,000 on upgrading the facility and that was accepted
by everybody."
------------------------
A medical source, who had dealt with Riverside Nursing Home, said
Mr Rabinowitz had a reputation in the industry as being difficult,
particularly where there had been concerns about the standards at
Riverside.Liquidator demanded ban on Riverside mis-manager The
Australian February 28, 2000

Mar 2000 Government
recovered money in 1998

Senator Evans
(opposition shadow minister) also alleged that the
commonwealth had cut care subsidies by $800,000 to Riverside and
asked in the Senate whether this had forced the home to cut staff
and reduce the quality of care to residents.

Government sources confirmed the
federal Government did complete an action to recover
unaccounted-for care subsidies from the home in 1998.Spot check neglected after resident's death The Australian
March 17, 2000

The early
years:- The story went back to 1993 and the department had wanted
to remove Martiniuk at that time. They did not have the power to do
so.

Mar 2000 Problems
started in 1993

On Christmas Eve 1993,
officials noted that the ``proprietor did not appear to recognise
problems and could not believe they warranted sanctions''.History Of Problems At Home The Age March 3, 2000

Apr 2000 Government
backed away from removing Martiniuk in
1994

Federal authorities
considered removing the proprietor of the Riverside nursing home
six years ago, after a series of complaints.

In early 1994, senior officers
of the federal Department of Health grappled with the legal
implications of removing the proprietor, as well as the impact on
elderly residents, according to documents obtained by The Age.
--------------------------
The documents obtained by The Age reveal that in January 1994 a
senior departmental official wanted the department to consider
revoking the ``approved operator/officer status'' of the home's
proprietor. However the department was given legal advice that
such action could lead to the home's closure, an outcome officials
wanted to avoid.

``We are faced with the prospect
of closing the home and relocating 60 residents if the proprietor
does not budge. This is clearly not feasible in an environment
where there is 98 percent occupancy throughout the state.
Alternatively, we could back down on our principles and be made to
look ridiculous,'' one officer wrote.Nursing Home Under Scrutiny In '93 The Age April 6,
2000

The inadequacy of government regulations
prohibiting undesirable people from being directors were revealed
after the home was closed. Although we were told that Martyniuk was
no longer a director he presents himself as such and speaks for the
company in March 2000. He is still the majority owner.

Mar 2000 Martiniuk
presents himself as a director and speaks

Nursing home director
Vladymir Martyniuk yesterday said there had been "a lot of
rubbish" talked about his now-defunct nursing home.

"I have spoken to some of the
relatives and some of the staff," Mr Martyniuk said. "They are
happy and want to stay."

The home is owned by Riverside
Nursing Care Pty Ltd, which is in turn owned by Mr Martyniuk, 54,
Cecil Raymond King, 76, and Illawong Retirement Living - a company
owned by wealthy businessman Howard Rabinowitz, 65, who is also a
partner in New Millennium Properties and the Lightning Jack Film
Trust, formerly associated with Paul Hogan.

Chris Cooper, who owns the
building from which Riverside operates, put a written proposal to
the Federal Government a week ago to take over management, but has
not had a reply.Desperate bid to keep home open. Herald-Sun March 7,
2000

Internal
disputes:- Some of those involved eventually spoke out about the
internal disputes which had paralysed management. As always in the
marketplace these were about money and not care.

Although he was prevented from being manager
or director Martyniuk still owned two thirds of the company, in
essence giving him control. Effective management was paralysed by
disputes between director and manager Rabinowitz, and majority owner
Martyniuk. A third past owner was named.

Mar 2000 Debarred
Martiniuk exerted control through majority
holding

The dispute between Mr
Vladimir Martyniuk, the majority owner of the company that has run
the home at Patterson Lakes since 1985, and his partner, Mr Howard
Rabinowitz, caused an impasse in the management of Riverside
Nursing Home Pty Ltd.

The partners' former business
associates said the dispute was over who controlled the company,
which since early last year has been run by two agents of Mr
Rabinowitz, accountants Mr Paul Grinwald and Mr John
Irving.

The revelation of Mr
Martyniuk's continued behind-the-scenes involvement raises
questions about the reforms to the nursing home industry trumpeted
by the federal Aged Care Minister, Mrs Bronwyn Bishop.
---------------------------------
Mr Martyniuk made a bid to gain control over two-thirds of the
shares of the managing trust in January 1998. But Mr Rabinowitz,
who owns the remaining third, ousted him as manager after the
company was placed in receivership in May that year.

The insolvency accountant who
took over as administrator, Mr Greg Andrews, said at the time the
home failed to meet the Government's standards across the
board.

Mr Martyniuk had been company
secretary and manager since 1985 but, under the liquidator, the
home was found to owe $850,000 to the federal Health
Department.

In the liquidator's report, Mr
Martyniuk was blamed for management failings, and in the
restructure it was stated he was to have no say in running the
home.

But he still owns up to
two-thirds of the shares through a network of interlocking
companies and trusts.Dispute Lies Behind Riverside Closure The Age March 9,
2000

Mar 2000 Owners were
unwilling to put in money

THE owners of Melbourne's
Riverside Nursing Home had failed to put in the money needed to
bring the home up to the standards recommended by its business
managers, a director of its trustee company claimed
yesterday.

Paul Grinwald, a non-financial
director of Riverside, told The Weekend Australian all the three
owners now wanted was to get their licence back so they could sell
up and move on.
----------------------
Since 1998, part-owners Vladymir Martyniuk, 54 and Mr Rabinowitz,
65, have been in dispute with each other after Mr Martyniuk was
told by the Health Department to relinquish day-to-day management
of the home when officials found serious problems with its
administration.

A series of business managers
was employed by Mr Rabinowitz to run the home but, according to Mr
Grinwald, most of their attempts to bring it up to acceptable
standards were thwarted by the partners' refusal to spend money.
"A lot of money was needed to improve that place - Mr Rabinowitz
was willing to put in his third of the cost but the other two
partners refused," he said.

The third unit trust member,
Cecil King, still held a non-managerial role in the company but,
according to Mr Grinwald, he was "desperate to get out".Owners `ignored' Riverside's needs. The Australian March
11, 2000

Profitability:-
An interesting revelation came in March 2000. This home which had
been under-funded, understaffed and in appalling condition was
actually profitable making $200,000 a year.

Mar 2000 Riverside
was profitable

Riverside's administrator,
David Lofthouse, estimated the Patterson Lakes home was running at
a half-yearly $100,000 profit.

He said the forced closure of
the home had left trade debts of about $70,000 and outstanding
employee entitlements of up to $300,000.
---------------------
Mr Lofthouse had no comment on whether Riverside was in a position
to return a "healthy" profit to its owners, Vladymir Martyniuk,
54, Howard Rabinowitz, 65, and Cecil King, 76, who has no
management function.Probe on death. Herald-Sun March 9, 2000

Other
business interests:- The same owner or owners also had an
interest in other aged care facilities

Feb 2000 Rabinowitz
owned other homes

Mr Rabinowitz is also
believed to have an ownership stake in two other Victorian
retirement homes, Brighton Lodge in the affluent bayside Melbourne
suburb of Brighton, and Queenscliff Nursing Home on the Bellarine
Peninsula.

Both homes are believed to have
been the subject of a weekend investigation by the Aged Care
Standards and Accreditation Agency. They were cleared of any
serious problems. - SECT-Local.Liquidator demanded ban on Riverside mis-manager The
Australian February 28, 2000

Mar 2000 Agency
looked at them

A spokeswoman for Aged Care
Minister, Bronwyn Bishop, told The Canberra Times that when the
issue of Riverside came to light, the agency turned its attention
to the two other nursing homes Mr Rabinowitz had an interest in
which included Canberra Nursing Home, formerly Allambee.Canberra Link To Melbourne Home Canberra Times March 8,
2000

The department and the agency could not have
been unaware of this track record. Only 2 years before the company
owed them $800,000 while it was in receivership. There was also a
long history of serious problems in the home. Regulators had taken
action.

March 2003 Recurrent
problems and sanctions going back to 1988

Fears about safety at
Melbourne's Riverside Nursing Home - the centre of a national
scandal after the revelation last month that residents were bathed
in kerosene - first emerged in 1988.

A recent report by the federal
Department of Aged Care reveals the home, in Patterson Lakes, was
several times rated to be in need of ``urgent action'' under the
former Labor Government.

The report, obtained by The Age,
said Riverside was identified as a ``home of concern'' on 29 March
1993 but it was not ``declared'' as such until 13 December 1993.
It remained on this high alert until 3 September 1996 when it
achieved a perfect score in a visit to monitor standards.
-----------------------
But the report shows more than a decade of problems at Riverside
under Labor ministers Mr Peter Staples, Mr Brian Howe and Dr
Carmen Lawrence.

The report said the federal
department first identified that standards for dignity were not
met in 1988. It said urgent action was required in relation to
issues of continence, infection control, health care and restraint
in 1992 and there had been a ``deterioration in standards'' in
1993.

The home was placed under
financial sanction for six months from 1993 to 1994, and again in
1995.
-----------------------
In January 1994, the department had a ``legal discussion'' about
revoking the home's approved provider status.History Of Problems At Home The Age March 3,
2000

Apr 2000 Review of
1993 findings

Inspectors who visited the
home in October 1993 alleged it had ``offensive urine odors'' in
the activity and day rooms, that residents could not be assured of
receiving the correct medication and were at risk of inappropriate
restraint.
--------------------------
The October 1993 inspection recommended ``urgent action'' to
improve residents' health care, freedom of movement, privacy and
dignity. According to the inspection report the stench of the
carpet in the day rooms and activities room discouraged
visitors.Nursing Home Under Scrutiny In '93 The Age April 6,
2000

Feb 2000 Review of
1998 findings

An earlier agency
assessment conducted in the first half of 1998 found the home had
failed all but three of 29 aged care and home maintenance
standards. The report found skin irritations and rashes were
widespread among the residents and were mostly left untreated. It
also found that a male resident was passing blood in his urine but
nothing was done about it for 11 days.Bishop silent on delay over aged-care scandal Courier Mail
February 26, 2000

Feb 2000 Review of
1999 findings

The same agency conducted
further assessments on Riverside again in April and July 1999,
with the July report giving the home an "unacceptable" rating.
That report expressed concern about medication being given to
residents and that some were left in constant pain because they
had not been given their prescribed medication. Added to that was
poor nutrition, a risk of dehydration and poor management of
wounds such as pressure sores from being left lying in the same
position all day. It reveals a pattern, well known to the
authorities entrusted with monitoring the health and safety of our
3000 nursing homes.Even Dickens would be appalled. Courier Mail February 26,
2000

Mar 2000 Urgent
action advised in May 1999

A leaked review of the
Riverside Nursing Home revealed yesterday that conditions there
had been dire as far back as May last year. The Aged Care and
Accreditation Standards Agency report recommended that "urgent
action" be taken in almost all aspects of the residents' health,
lifestyle and physical environments.Bishop `failed to act'. The Australian March 2,
2000

Feb 2000 Nursing
unions had a big file

It was a case of ``what is
it this time'' when the call came to the Australian Nursing
Federation offices on the morning of Monday 17 January and the
name Riverside Nursing Home was uttered.

Over the years, a litany of
problems has built a thick union file on the home.

Last year complaints to the
Federal Government about the home included weevils in the
residents' cereal, bedpans washed in a bucket by staff who were
not given gloves, insufficient bandages, beds without brakes and
wheelchairs that didn't wheel - to mention just a few.A Call That Took A Month To Answer The Age February 26,
2000

Feb 2000 An inside
source

An industry source said
conditions inside the Riverside Nursing Home were disgraceful,
with residents dehydrated, one patient with maggots in a wound,
blood left on a shower curtain, torn lino, ripped fly-screens and
leaking bed-pan flushers. The list of faults had filled two full
pages, the source said.Kersosene baths scandal puts heat on aged care. The
Australian February 26, 2000

Mar 2000 Nurses have
been complaining for years

The latest controversy is
symptomatic of a raft of official complaints about the Riverside
Home dating back to January last year. Weevils in the food, a lack
of bed linen, inadequate supplies of latex gloves and lubricants
all necessary to good care were among allegations raised by nurses
against the home.Golden Oldies Sydney Morning Herald March 2,
2000

Stories come out of the
woodwork:- As the scandal broke relatives
and nurses came forward to tell of their past experiences at
Riverside. Several nurses had resigned in disgust. One nurses
comment "I'll never go back to any nursing home again" expresses a
fundamental problem in the provision of care for profit. Nurses who
actual care are so turned off by their experience of
"people
farming", and their inability to do
anything about it that they leave the profession. The best people
leave. Dysfunctional individuals will tolerate what is happening fill
the void and are promoted to senior positions.

Not only are staff shortages exacerbated but
the service is dehumanised. Those who can do what their managers
require and put up a mental barrier advance their careers and come to
dominate.

Feb 2000 Several
nurses had resigned

The sources said staff felt
the health and safety of the residents was at serious risk as
several residents had recently been admitted to hospital.

Sources said three nurses had
resigned from the home in the past few years because of alleged
intimidation by management over complaints about conditions.Nursing home risks lives Herald-Sun February 18,
2000

Feb 2000 Daughter of
a past resident

THE daughter of a Riverside
Nursing home resident claimed she was barred from seeing her dying
mother and was not told when she died.

Merle Noble said nursing home
staff would not allow her to see her mother in the last four
months of her life.

And she said yesterday she only
found out her mother, Jean, died when she read the death
notices.
----------------------------
"In the four months before she died I tried to see her about six
times," Miss Noble said.

"There was always excuses
made.

"Most of the time they said it
was no good because she won't know me.

"Or they said she's gone out on
an outing or she's not there.Daughter's visits refused Herald-Sun February 26,
2000

Mar 2000 Why nurses
abandon the profession

AN elderly resident at
Melbourne's Riverside Nursing Home was denied oxygen after she
choked on a pancake in an unsupervised room, a former employee
said yesterday.

The Melbourne nurse who worked
at Riverside last year says the experience was so traumatic she
never wants to work in aged care again.

Adelaide Ericksen, a registered
nurse who was assigned casual shifts at Riverside through a
nursing agency, said the home was "old, damp and dirty" and nurses
worked in a climate of fear.

"The nurses there were
terrified," Ms Ericksen said yesterday. "The morale there was
terrible."

Ms Ericksen worked just three
shifts at the home and was so appalled by her experience that she
refused to work there again.

She told The Australian she had
been disturbed by the overcrowding of residents in one small day
room and the sense of panic among patients that they might not
receive their medication.

"Patients and relatives were
just at me from all corners - they seemed so anxious that their
medication was not going to be given," she said.

There was also a serious
shortage of experienced nursing staff with only a few state
enrolled nurses, who undergo one year's training, and the rest
nurses' assistants with just six weeks' training.

But what most dismayed her was
an incident where a patient almost choked to death after eating a
pancake in an unsupervised room.

The woman, one of many residents
unable to digest solid food, had taken the pancake during a
cooking session with an untrained volunteer worker.

Ms Ericksen revived the woman
after she was brought to her "blue and limp" by two junior
nurses.

But she was then forbidden from
administering oxygen to the patient - standard medical procedure
following asphyxiation - by a senior nursing staff
member.

"I had to hide the oxygen tank
and wait five minutes around the corner until she'd gone and then
I gave the oxygen to her (the patient)," she said.

"While I was waiting, one nurse
came up to me and seemed absolutely terrified and asked me not to
make her (the senior nurse) angry."

While Ms Ericksen subsequently
submitted a written complaint detailing the fact that the patient
had been denied oxygen, she was unaware if any action was
taken.

"It was dreadful, disgusting,"
she said. "I felt sorry for the patients but I just won't go back.
I'll never go back to any nursing home again."Riverside choke case denied oxygen - nurse. The Australian
March 1, 2000

Mar 2000 The sort of
people who are promoted

Former nursing staff, who
have asked to remain anonymous, have told the Herald Sun the
behavior of the home's director of nursing and the sister in
charge contributed to an atmosphere of fear and
intimidation.

One registered nurse, who quit
shortly after the bathing incident, said the mood was one of
foreboding and said she warned other nurses to get out before it
was too late.

"I believed something would
happen there. I had no idea it would be so quick" she said.Riverside appeal Herald-Sun March 11, 2000

Mar 2000 Skimping on
basic equipment is very demoralising for
staff

The nurse said that
management ran the nursing home "on a thread" and staff had done
the best they could.

"Riverside was run by the wrong
people," she said. "There were 60 residents, yet if you asked for
soap, you were given five bars.

"They skimped on the linen.
There was not enough and it was so worn. They skimped on
cleaning.
--------------------
"The staffing levels weren't adequate.

The nurse said the kerosene
baths "were the worst things that could have happened".

"The girl who ordered them had
been there only four to six weeks, and she told the director of
nursing that a doctor had said the baths were OK," she said.Evacuees face hospital trek Sunday Herald Sun March 12,
2000

May 2000
Understaffing further demoralises

The nursing director who
decided to bathe elderly residents of a Melbourne nursing home in
diluted kerosene says it was the worst decision she ever made and
one she deeply regrets.

She told ABC's Four Corners
program she may not have made the decision had she been less
overworked, but also said staff, rather than the home's
proprietor, had been made accountable for its problems.

"The morale of the nursing home
was going down because everyone was overworked. They were stressed
out, they couldn't look after the residents that they wanted to
look after them," said Ms Taylor, who had been at the home 13
years.

She said in hindsight, she may
not have made the decision to go ahead with the kerosene baths if
she'd been less "emotionally tired and drained and
overworked".Riverside nursing director regrets kerosene baths decision.
Australian Associated Press May 1, 2000

The agency had been dismissive of staff who
complained about the kerosene baths even though Riverside was already
known to have major problems. They did not seem to know what their
powers were. They set out on a process of mediation.

While the agency had the power to make
surprise visits they had never done so. Homes normally had plenty of
time to prepare themselves for a one off accreditation and then go
back to business as usual for another 3 years.

Adverse publicity precipitated the first
surprise visit to Riverside. At first the kerosene bath incident was
not known to the press - at least not in a way which could be
published. They were pressing the minister about the failure to meet
her 2 year old promise to conduct surprise visits.

What is interesting is the amount of
information released publicly. All too often information, especially
involving large groups does not appear for several months, and on
other occasions legal grounds are found for a delay.

Feb 2000 First ever
surprise visit precipitated by publicity

A NURSING home inspected
seven months after it was rated "unacceptable" has been accused of
placing resident's lives at risk.

The Melbourne home allegedly had
poor fire safety, lax infection control and out of date
medicines.

The inspection was ordered by
Aged Care Minister Bronwyn Bishop this week after the Herald Sun
revealed that not a single random inspection had been carried out
by her department in two years.

The 60-bed Riverside Nursing
Home at bayside Patterson Lakes was assessed by the Aged Care
Standards and Accreditation Agency in April and July, uncovering
many alleged breaches.

Management of the home had also
failed to ensure correct medication was administered to
inmates.

The Federal Opposition said
yesterday staff at the home lodged a complaint with Mrs Bishop's
department on January 17 citing concerns about the safety of the
elderly residents. Sources told the Herald Sun that when one of
them phoned the federal Department of Health and Aged Care an
officer said: "Well, there's not really a lot we can do but we can
approach the management."
-----------------------------
Opposition aged care spokesman Senator Chris Evans said the
department had planned to use mediation to deal with the
complaint, not a surprise visit.

"They knew there was a serious
risk to health. They had known for seven months. The only thing
that forced the Minister's hand was two days of bad
publicity."

On Tuesday, the Herald Sun
revealed that the agency, which is charged with monitoring health
and safety at Australia's 3000 nursing homes, had not conducted a
single surprise visit to a home in two years. This was despite
more than 4000 complaints.

Mrs Bishop defended the agency
saying surprise visits were a last resort. The department
identified 29 nursing homes in the past year where residents were
at serious risk.Nursing home risks lives Herald-Sun February 18,
2000

Feb 2000 Some
information released

The Riverside Nursing Home
at bayside Patterson Lakes also faces allegations of poor fire
safety, lax infection control and use of out-of-date
medicines.
-----------------------------------
Ms Bishop said the audit had also revealed concerns over the
administration of drugs to residents and serious concerns about
methods of treating skin conditions, including kerosene baths. It
also involved poor management of incontinence and environmental
and safety issues arising from inadequate building
maintenance.Care for aged - a kerosene dip The Australian February 25,
2000

Mar 2000 Report
released within weeks

The Aged Care Standards and
Accreditation Agency report said during an inspection on February
16 and 17, evidence of serious risk to the health, safety and
well-being of residents was identified.

"Medication is not safely
administered, hydration needs are not met and residents' skin
integrity is at serious risk," the agency said in the report
released today.

Treatments used by care staff on
residents were often out of date and inappropriate and the oral
care of residents was poor.

The comfort and dignity of
terminally ill residents was also not maintained.

The agency said continence aids
such as nappies and pads were used to manage incontinence rather
than as a device to assist.

Staff confirmed that residents
were left for extended periods of time in wet continence aids and
two residents' relatives confirmed that when residents requested
to go to the toilet, they were consistently told they had to wait
until after lunch by some members of staff.

A chair used to transport
residents to and from the toilet and the shower had a bare wire
holding the seat onto the frame.

"This could easily tear
resident's skin while in use to transport residents to and from
the toilets and showers as residents sit directly on the toilet
seat of the commode during transport," the agency said.

"Residents are at serious risk
of skin tears on the genitalia or buttocks due to the bare wire
holding a commode seat on to the frame."

The agency said interventions
documented were largely inappropriate and there was excessive use
of restraint.

"Residents living at the service
are at serious risk, as they can not be assured of receiving
appropriate clinical care," the report said.Riverside Nursing Home a serial offender - report
Australian Associated Press March 14, 2000

Mar 2000 More
information

SCABIES was only one of the
problems afflicting residents at the Riverside Nursing Home, it
emerged yesterday. Previously unreleased reports from the agency
which inspected the home show residents were at risk of food
poisoning, maggots infesting wounds, severe dehydration and other
problems from a lack of proper care.
---------------------
It (the agency) found:

A RESIDENT had maggots inside a
sore and a note attached to the wound chart which said "No mention
to family please".
-----------------
Residents were also at serious risk of:

FOOD poisoning because the
home's freezer broke down and the cook had been asking for a new
one since November.

A few days later the story of chemical burns
broke. The home had elected to treat a scabies infection with
kerosene baths, an old wives remedy from the beginning of the
previous century. They failed to get a medical opinion to confirm the
diagnosis and a prescription for more costly modern treatment. I
trained more than 50 years ago in a country where scabies was very
common. I have never heard of kerosene as a treatment!

Registered nurses had confirmed that the
kerosene was harmful by phoning a poisons information centre. They
refused to comply. Instead untrained staff were ordered to bath the
residents the next day.

Seven nurses who found the blisters blew the
whistle and lodged complaints with the department.

The department was not receptive. It sat on
its hands for 4 weeks and then acted only after the minister was
contacted by the press.

Mar 2000 Kerosene
baths on 16 January 2000

WHEN staff at Riverside
Nursing Home noticed four residents had scabies in December, they
sought advice from the Health Department.

But the advice to use lotion to
treat the condition went unheeded, leading to kerosene baths a
month later.

On the weekend of January 15 and
16, the director of nursing and a weekend supervisor, also a
registered nurse, allegedly decided to bathe the 60 residents in
kerosene.

According to two previously
unreleased reports from the inspection of Riverside by the Aged
Care Standards and Accreditation Agency, neither nurse sought
permission from residents' relatives.Staff given lotion advice Herald-Sun March 15,
2000

Feb 2000 Delay of 4
weeks after complaint

It has been learnt that up
to seven staff complained to the department on January 17 but it
was nearly four weeks before federal officials visited the
home.
------------------------------
The registered nurse interviewed by The Advertiser said staff had
been ordered to use the kerosene by a nursing
supervisor.

The nurse, who did not want to
be identified for fear of being sacked, said nurses rostered on at
the home on the weekend of January 15 and 16 refused to carry out
the instructions.
----------------------------------
A spokeswoman for the Australian Nursing Federation's Victorian
branch said it was clear the Government's reforms were not working
when complaints like this were not acted upon for weeks.BATHED IN KEROSENE. Adelaide Advertiser February 25,
2000

Feb Staff refused to
use kerosene

As a precaution, they made
two phone calls. One went to the accident and emergency department
of the Frankston Hospital. The other went to a drugs and poison
information line. Their concern was confirmed: kerosene baths were
inappropriate under any circumstances.

The night staff refused the
order to give the baths.

But the next morning, other
staff were given the order and - whether through ignorance about
the inappropriateness of the procedure or through fear of the
consequences if they refused - they complied.A Call That Took A Month To Answer The Age February 26,
2000

Feb 2000 Attempts to
alter records - nurses behave responsibly

They were towel-dried but
not rinsed with fresh water before being returned to their beds
with the same linen, the nurse said.

The nurse said a number of the
residents later complained of feeling sick and by the next day
seven had come out in severe blisters.

"You should have seen the
blisters ... it was disgusting, it was cruel," the nurse
said.

"The Health Department knew
about it on the 17th of January but did nothing."
-----------------------
The nurse alleged attempts were made to alter records that
indicated injuries were caused by the kerosene baths and had told
staff not to tell anyone of the baths.

Nurses arriving for the day
shift at the home on Monday, January 17, called in a doctor when
blisters were discovered on patients and about seven made
complaints to the Department of Health and Aged Care.BATHED IN KEROSENE. Herald-Sun February 25, 2000

Mar 2000 Hiding what
happened

The agency found there had
been an attempt by some staff to change residents' case notes to
hide evidence of the baths.Staff given lotion advice Herald-Sun March 15,
2000

Mar 2000 The
chemical burns

The nurse said she and
other staff members were "beside themselves" as they treated seven
residents for burns and blisters after 57 people were bathed in a
kerosene solution on January 15 in an attempt to treat a scabies
outbreak.Kero bath for dying woman. The Australian March 4,
2000

Mar 2000 Conditions
in the home

TWO damning reports
surfaced yesterday which reveal the full horror of conditions at
Melbourne's Riverside Nursing Home and prompted claims that Aged
Care Minister Bronwyn Bishop was negligent and should have acted
earlier to close down the home.

The two reports, carried out on
February 17 by the Government's aged care watchdog, allege a
resident died after a kerosene bath and patients were at risk of
developing maggot-infested pressure sores. These are virtually the
same allegations contained in a February 29 report relied on by
Mrs Bishop to announce the provider's licence had been
revoked.
-----------------------------------
It reveals more than 90 failings in personal care and arrangements
for the residents.
---------------------------------
Twenty-two residents with catheters and feeding tubes entering
their bodies through open wounds were at risk of internal
poisoning.

It says there was an ongoing
serious risk that residents' open wounds could "become flyblown
and infested with maggots" and that nursing staff were instructed
not to tell relatives about the infestations.Risk of flyblown open wounds at Riverside. The Australian
March 15, 2000

Mar 2000 Thirteen
residents burnt

The Aged Care Standards and
Accreditation Agency reported that 13 residents not seven as
originally reported received blisters and burns from kerosene
baths given to treat scabies.

The agency reported that the
residents at the home were at "serious risk".
-----------------
A WOMAN was vomiting blood before she was bathed in kerosene on
January 16 and died seven days later on January 23.

ONE resident returned from
hospital on January 14 and was noted to be unwell both before and
after the kerosene bath.

SEVENTEEN residents had open
wounds, two had tubes into their stomachs, two had catheters and
one had a colostomy.
---------------------
All 60 of the home's residents were bathed for up to 10 minutes
each in a bath containing 30 millilitres of kerosene. "A dying
resident was bathed in kerosene, a process that must have been
extremely distressing and frightening," the agency's first
inspection report said.
-----------------
Within 24 hours of the baths, it became apparent according to
nursing staff notes that 13 residents had various skin
problems.

Conditions at Melbourne's
Riverside Nursing Home were far worse than previously thought,
with new revelations that even residents with intravenous tubes
were bathed in kerosene.

The Federal Government's Aged
Care Standards and Accreditation Agency report, parts of which
were released yesterday, says that when residents were given baths
with 30 millilitres of ``poisonous'' kerosene in them, fumes were
so strong that the bathroom door was left open, fans were
positioned to blow the smell away and staff were advised to take
``constant breaks''.

``The baths were not effectively
cleaned or decontaminated between each resident. Some residents
had open wounds, catheters and feeding tubes into their abdomens,
and one a colostomy,'' it added.

Those residents ``were likely to
have had the toxic kerosene solution tracking down into their
bodies''.Riverside Revelations Worsen Sydney Morning Herald March
15, 2000

Mar 2000 Residents
scarred

Many of the elderly
residents carry scars from the episode with seven suffering
second-degree burns, severe blistering and bleeding.State govt ready to help evacuation of elderly - minister
Australian Associated Press March 5, 2000

Feb 2000 Dickensian
care

"This is the sort of
treatment that went out with Dickens, rather than something we
would use in the 21st century," Dr Brand (President Australian
Medical Association) told AAP.Vic - Angry reatives visit loved ones at kerosene nursing
home. Australian Associated Press February 25, 2000

Feb 2000 A cost
cutting exercise ?

- - - - - which a number of
the relatives hinted was the result of cost saving to avoid having
to pay for ointments at less than $20 a bottle.Angry Families Ask: How Could This Happen? The Age February
26, 2000

Feb 2000 A cheap
alternative

Another medical
practitioner yesterday speculated the kerosene could have been a
crude attempt to save money by choosing the cheap alternative of a
can of kero from the local petrol station rather than $10 bottles
of lotion for the 57 elderly people.Even Dickens would be appalled. Courier Mail February 26,
2000

Mar 2000
Interpersonal dynamics

The director of nursing at
Riverside, Allyson Taylor, who agreed to the kerosene baths after
a phone call from the supervising nurse, has since resigned and is
believed to be suffering from a stress-related illness.

The supervising nurse who
suggested the kerosene baths has also left but is working at other
hospitals in the area.

The supervising nurse "was not
at all liked or respected by the other nursing staff, who fought
against the kerosene baths", the registered nurse said.Nurses were shocked by kero burns. The Australian March 4,
2000

One of those bathed was a patient near death
having palliative care. The way in which the minister and her
department handled her death is simply one of the many examples of
the ministers insensitivity and ineptitude. From there it
escalated as investigations were commenced into more and more deaths.
The ineptitude and insensitivity defy belief. In the end there was no
outcome from any of this.

Mar 2000 A
death

One week after the kerosene
bath, one woman, who was receiving palliative care, died from a
haemorrhage.Kero bath for dying woman. The Australian March 4,
2000

Mar 2000 Police to
investigate

Mrs Bishop told parliament
she had been concerned enough to ask police to investigate the
death.Report referred to AFP for further investigation Australian
Associated Press March 8, 2000

Mar 2000 An expected
death

It is understood the woman,
who died a few days after being bathed in diluted kerosene, was
receiving palliative care.Probe on death. Herald-Sun March 9, 2000

Mar 2000 Was it
kerosene too?

Mrs Cucuzzella had been
fitted with an open feeding tube to her stomach and some of the
nurses now fear kerosene may have entered the tube.Riverside appeal Herald-Sun March 11, 2000

Mar 2000
Insensitivity or ineptitude

Josephine said her anger
was compounded when she discovered through the media that the
resident whose death was to be investigated was her
mother.

"I think it would have been
lovely if (the Department of Health and Aged Care) had given me a
ring, because up until yesterday I didn't know they were speaking
about our mum," she said.

She said the family now had to
sit and wait for the coroner's finding.Family waits for verdict Herald-Sun March 10,
2000

Mar 2000 Bishop used
wrong police department

AGED Care Minister Bronwyn
Bishop unnecessarily delayed an investigation into the death of a
nursing home resident who had been given a kerosene bath by
referring it to the wrong authorities, Labor said
yesterday.

Instead of reporting the death
to the Victorian coroner or state police, Mrs Bishop directed her
department to write to the Australian Federal Police for
advice.Bishop mix-up revealed Hobart Mercury March
10,2000

Mar 2000 The coroner
approached Bishop

The rebuff came as the
Federal Opposition and Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls
attacked Mrs Bishop for not referring the death to the Victorian
coroner and waiting until the coroner approached her office before
providing information for his investigation.Police Rebuff Bishop Plea The West Australian March 10,
2000

Mar 2000 Coroner to
investigate 6 deaths

Federal Parliament has been
told Coroner Graeme Johnstone will investigate the death of
Antonietta Cucuzzella, 84, who died a few days after being given a
kerosene bath at the Riverside Nursing Home.

And Mr Johnstone today revealed
his preliminary investigations would include another five deaths
this year at the home, at Patterson Lakes in Melbourne's
south-east.
-----------------------------
The preliminary investigations will determine whether full
coronial inquiries should be held into the deaths.Six deaths to be investigated at Riverside nursing home
Australian Associated Press March 10, 2000

Mar 2000 No
consideration or information to relatives

In other developments
yesterday, relatives said they were confused and shocked to learn
that the Coroner will investigate the deaths of six people at
Riverside this year.

After the scandal broke the owners did little
if anything to address the problems in the home. Further audits were
conducted on the home a few days later and another after 2 weeks. The
last one precipitated the home's closure. The likelihood is that
management simply did not have the knowledge or the understanding
needed to do anything about the situation. They should never have
been in charge of a nursing home in the first place. The nursing
administrator brought in by the department was given less than a week
to address the myriad problems. She was critical of what
happened.

Mar 2000 A second
visit 2 days after first

The second full two-day
audit was made on the Riverside Nursing Home this week because it
had failed to comply with agency orders to improve
conditions.

Nurses conducting daily random
checks on the Patterson Lakes home found that fly screens had not
been fitted and a freezer had not been fixed. There were privacy
concerns and problems with climate control.Kero Baths Home May Be Closed The Age March 4,
2000

Mar 2000 The
immediate consequences for nurses

The nurse from Riverside
said morale was at an all-time low among staff, who had called an
emergency meeting on Thursday.

"The place is just chaotic,"
said the nurse, who asked not to be named. She said half the
office staff had walked out of Riverside and the nursing staff
felt as if they had been portrayed as "monsters".

"People put their relatives in
nursing homes believing they will be looked after and that is what
we are trying to do," the nurse said.Nurses were shocked by kero burns. The Australian March 4,
2000

Mar 2000 Another
assessment on March 1st reveals far more
horror

The report that finally
killed the Riverside Nursing Home reads like the outline for a
Dickensian novel.

In it, one of the 57 residents
treated to the infamous bath containing kerosene is said to have
been dying at the time.

Cornflour was applied to the
skin of residents to treat itchiness.

Bandages for wounds were so
scarce that ``dressings that are leaking fluid or falling off are
patched up''.

Soiled dressings were left in
bathrooms; soiled bandages and towels were washed with the
residents' laundry; urine-stained foam mattress overlays were
stored with clean linen; fly-screens were missing; and ``there is
ongoing serious risk that residents' open wounds can become
flyblown and infested with maggots''.

Of 46 residents reviewed ``six
have confirmed dehydration, nine others have possible dehydration,
15 have recorded increasing episodes of aggression, confusion,
depression, fainting or loss of consciousness, 13 have recorded
infections such as conjunctivitis, cellulitis, diarrhoea, urinary
tract infections and infected wounds (and) two residents have
chest infections''.

The worst single story concerns
a woman who complained of pain in her left upper arm. It took a
week of mis-diagnoses, suggestions her pain was simply a reaction
to a `flu injection, the administration of pills, and an
observation by a doctor that her right arm - the wrong one - had
``settled'' before anyone thought to order an X-ray.

Even when this unfortunate woman
was treated and her arm placed in a collar-and-cuff sling, her
life was put in danger and she was forced to endure even more pain
because staff did not know that she had to sit up so the weight of
her arm would pull the broken bone into the correct
position.

Those investigating the home
noted that ``the resident is frequently lying down so the bone
pushes up into the shoulder causing pain and increasing the risk
of fat embolus (a condition that has a very high death
rate)''.

No one knows how she broke her
arm. Record-keeping was so poor there was no documentation
concerning the origins of the injury.

One resident fitted with a tube
inserted into the stomach to maintain nutrition and hydration was
seen being fed orally. There was no record to indicate whether the
resident could actually swallow safely - in short, no one knew if
oral feeding might lead to choking.

Medication was not stored
safely. A new lock was on the medication room door, but it was
often left unlocked or unattended, and medication trolleys were
left unlocked and unattended in corridors and residents'
rooms.

Medication was often not
available and, when it was, was not administered safely - ``staff
practices include administering medication that has been
prescribed for another resident'', the report said.

Poor maintenance of the home
hardly helped the residents' everyday comfort levels, either.
Curtains and blinds were missing from west-facing windows, leaving
old people sitting in the beating sun, although ``some pedestal
fans are available''.

And on and on goes the report,
for 19 pages - a litany of horrors.

The report was compiled by the
Aged Care Accreditation Agency following an investigation of the
nursing home on 29 February and 1 March.

Its damning findings became the
basis for the Aged Care Department's decision yesterday to close
Riverside.Official Investigation Details A Saga Of Neglect And Abuse
The Age March 7, 2000

One of the reasons why this failure in care
caused such an outcry was because it exposed the inadequacy of the
regulatory system and the policy behind it to the public for the
first - but far from the last time. Politicians, government
departments and the assessment authorities were living in a different
world to residents, their families, the nurses and the Australian
community. The press moved rapidly to expose them to the wider
view.

Instead of acting promptly to investigate and
address complaints by visiting the nursing homes the department were
required to go through a cumbersome mediation process. Even worse
they were unable to put someone into the home to protect residents.
The homes owners had the right to appoint an administrator. We can
see how far the government bent over backwards to help nursing homes
whos interests were promoted by Doug
Moran and his mates.

We should not blame the agency and its staff
for the failures in the system. They were constrained by the way it
was set up - and were committed to an unrealistic process. They had
to cope with coalition governments which deliberately legislated to
allow businesses to compromise care (eg reduce staffing below safe
levels) and then created a system which protected those who took
advantage of this. Those same politicians then blamed the agency for
what happened.

Feb 2000 Home to
nominate an acceptable administrator

The Melbourne nursing home
which bathed residents in kerosene has yet to nominate an
administrator to run the home, the Minister for Aged Care, Mrs
Bishop, said last night.

Last Tuesday the Government
ordered that an administrator be put into the Riverside Nursing
Home.

Under the legislation the home
has the right to name the administrator, who must be approved by
the Health and Aged Care Department.

Mrs Bishop said the act gave the
home 14 days to nominate someone.
-----------------------------
The department last week withdrew the home's provider status and
then suspended the withdrawal on condition that an administrator
was appointed.Nominate Administrator Or Risk Licence, Nursing Home Told
Sydney Morning Herald February 28, 2000

Feb 2000 Alarm bells
did not ring

The Australian Medical
Association aged care expert Dr Gerald Segal noted the suspected
presence of scabies should have rung alarm bells about conditions
at the home.Even Dickens would be appalled. Courier Mail February 26,
2000

Feb 2000 "Reforms"
not working

A spokeswoman for the
Australian Nursing Federation's Victorian branch said it was clear
the Government's reforms were not working when complaints like
this were not acted upon for weeks.BATHED IN KEROSENE. Adelaide Advertiser February 25,
2000

Feb 2000 Symptomatic
of an extremely sick system

"Whilst the situation at
Riverside is quite tragic ... we're very concerned that what has
happened there is really just symptomatic of a system that's
really extremely sick and needs some serious attention."
---------------------------
Staff at the Riverside Nursing Home in Patterson Lakes, in
Melbourne's southeast, lodged three official complaints about the
bathing on January 15 and 16, the Australian Nursing Federation
said today.
---------------------------
Ms Sellers (secretary of the union) said changes to laws
in June 1998 meant there was no longer a legal requirement to
employ registered nurses in aged care homes.
----------------------------
On the nights the kerosene baths were given at Riverside, January
15 and 16, only two registered nurses were on duty and it is
believed they refused to carry out the management's
request.

Ms Sellers said under
regulations, abolished by the Kennett government, six registered
nurses would have been on duty.Nurses complained repeatedly about scabies nursing home.
Australian Associated Press February 25, 200

Mar 2000 Complaint
system fails

But the new complaints and
inspection system, introduced in October 1997, did not work in
this case. The Federal Health and Aged Care Department closed the
file on this home last May despite outstanding issues. And when
fresh complaints were made on January 17 this year about kerosene
baths and other matters, it took three calls from nursing staff,
and three more weeks before inspectors were sent out.Golden Oldies Sydney Morning Herald March 2,
2000

Feb 2000 Plan to
mediate

It was not until three
weeks later (after the complaint) the department contacted
the home to arrange a meeting to mediate the complaints as
required under government policy.

Neither the department nor the
agency visited the home until ordered to by Mrs Bishop late on
Tuesday, February 15.Complaints were sat on for a month. Herald-Sun February 25,
2000

Feb 2000 Media
reports precipitated the visit

A visit to the nursing home
involved only came about because Aged Care Minister Bronwyn Bishop
was embarrassed by media reports in mid-February 2000 revealing
that no nursing homes had received a surprise visit in two years,
despite 4000 complaints about nursing home conditions over the
same period.Nursing home visit 'ordered' (ABIX ABSTRACT) The
Courier-Mail February 25, 2000

Feb 2000 No
unannounced visits

The Australian Government's
aged care agency has carried out no unannounced inspections since
1997. Despite receiving complaints about the Riverside nursing
home giving residents kerosene baths on 18 January 2000, it did
not visit the home until four weeks later.Complaints were sat on for a month (ABIX ABSTRACT) Herald
Sun February 25, 2000

Feb This was a home
found to be "unacceptable" only 6 months
before

Last July this home was
rated ``unacceptable'' after an assessment by the Federal
Government's Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency. It
would be expected that such a home would be subject to frequent,
unannounced inspections. Yet the Department of Health and Aged
Care received the complaints about the kerosene baths almost four
weeks before its officials visited the home.Aged Care: Too Many Horror Stories The Age February 26,
2000

Mar 2000 Government
disarray

Mrs Bishop's behavior over
the weekend, and her failure to announce any decision, suggested
Government disarray over the nursing homes controversy.

She called a short press
conference yesterday after two days of silence and an unexplained
decision to pull out of a scheduled appearance on the Nine
Network's Sunday program.Residents Angry Over Bishop's Silence The Age March 6,
2000

May 2000 The cost of
closing Riverside

The closure of Riverside
Nursing Home will cost the Federal Government about $1 million -
including more than $32,000 in taxi fares for just one
month.

The taxi bill was run up
ferrying relatives to St Vincent's Hospital to visit elderly
family members transferred there after Riverside was ruled unfit
for habitation. The $32,389 taxi bill was for March - the
Commonwealth is yet to be billed for April.
------------------------------
Officials from the federal Health Department told the hearing the
evacuation cost the Commonwealth about $116,000. Two bills from St
Vincent's, for the care of residents in March and April, came to
about $721,000.

Early last year, the
Commonwealth was effectively subsidising Riverside by $185,000 per
month.Closure Of Riverside Home Cost $1 Million The Age May 24,
2000

Under pressure the minister and her
department had released details about Riverside in record time to
justify her actions. Compare this with the more usual delay of
months. When it was the minister and her departments own actions
which were under scrutiny, the response was very
different.

Instead of releasing documents to the senate,
underlings in far off Melbourne fall on their swords to save the
minister who is still ultimately responsible for what happened in her
portfolio. It is one of the ministers departmental staff who
makes the announcement shifting the blame. The ministers
conduct does not encourage us to believe everything we
hear.

The whole process is about blaming someone
and no one is even thinking about confronting systemic problems in
the system.

Apr 2000 Refusing to
release documents

AGED Care Minister Bronwyn
Bishop has defied an order by the Senate to hand over documents on
the Riverside Nursing Home kerosene bath scandal.

Mrs Bishop said she wanted legal
advice before releasing any documents.

The Opposition, which gave
notice two weeks ago it would seek the documents in the Senate
yesterday, accused Mrs Bishop of a cover-up after she failed to
meet the 4pm deadline.

Her representative in the
Senate, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron, tabled a letter
saying Mrs Bishop needed time to consider if the documents were in
the public interest.Kero bath documents held back Herald-Sun April 5,
2000

May 2000 Staff in
Melbourne take the blame

FEDERAL Health Department
staff in Melbourne have admitted they should have immediately
reported complaints about kerosene-laced baths at Riverside
Nursing Home in January.

Instead it was almost four weeks
before the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency learned of
the complaints.

Department of Health and Aged
Care deputy secretary Mary Murnane last night said she had spoken
to the Melbourne staff since then to determine why they had not
recognised the seriousness of the complaints.

"They themselves would say, in
hindsight, this is one that did fall into a category of
seriousness and should have been referred on," she told a Senate
estimates committee.

"At the time, they did not make
that judgment for a number of reasons."

Those reasons included new
owners at Riverside, the director of nursing's assurance that
doctors had approved the kerosene treatment and the fact the
agency had given the home a clean bill of health last
November.

Ms Murnane said she learned of
the kerosene incident on February 15 and told Aged Care Minister
Bronwyn Bishop about 10 that night.Staff admit kerosene slip Herald-Sun May 3, 2000

Could it be that managers in the agency, like
those in nursing homes were so disenchanted with what they were
required to do and the instructions they were given that they
resigned and no one wanted their jobs. Those doing the job simply did
not know what they were supposed to do and were hamstrung by their
concerns about proper procedures and the ministers
unpredictable tendency to blame others.

Feb 2000 No manager
at agency for 18 months

On 27 February, Aged Care
Minister Bronwyn Bishop confirmed that the Melbourne office of the
department - which received the complaints about the
kerosene-laced baths given to residents of Riverside Nursing Home
in January - has been without a permanent manager for nearly 18
months.Kerosene scandal reveals staff crisis in Aged Care. The
Courier-Mail February 28, 2000 (ABIX ABSTRACT)

The industry must have realised that the
favourable system which they had successfully set up was being
threatened by what had happened at Riverside. They got on the
bandwagon and called for action against the owners.

Mar 2000 Industry
criticises minister

THE federal Government had
shirked its responsibility as the sole authority able to revoke
aged care licences, the country's leading industry body said
yesterday.

Aged and Community Services
Australia chief executive Maureen Lyster said Aged Care Minister
Bronwyn Bishop knew the industry advocated stripping the Riverside
Nursing Home proprietor of his operator's licence but failed to
take action.

"The minister was aware she had
our support on that," Ms Lyster said. "We have consistently called
on the Government to use every power they have to get rid of those
people.

"Those tools have been available
to governments for a long time but they have always been slow to
pursue that, and almost unwilling."Bishop `failed to act'. The Australian March 2,
2000

That the lives of the residents would be
disrupted was recognised by some. The landlord who owned the property
but did not own the business offered to take over the nursing home
and refurbish it. No attempt was made to find another operator to
lease the facility and either fix the problems or manage a staged
closure.

After revoking the licence the home was
suddenly closed and the residents forcibly removed - a very stressful
experience for residents and their families. This followed the second
inspection. The pleas of relatives were ignored and their belief that
they would be moved to worse homes was well founded. Some went to the
problem home Ripplebrook.

The closure was handled with insensitivity
and ineptitude, particularly when large numbers of residents simply
refused to be moved.

Feb 2000 Provider
status revoked

The nursing home's aged
care provider status had been revoked, no new residents were
permitted and the government was imposing daily inspections to
ensure the existing residents received proper care.Probe on more homes after patients bathed in kerosene.
Australian Associated Press February 25, 2000

Feb 2000 Landlord
offers to take over Riverside to protect
residents

THE landlord of the
Riverside Nursing Home has offered to take over the running of the
disgraced home in which elderly residents were bathed in kerosene
in January.

Lawyer Chris Cooper whose family
company Maniwest Pty Ltd rents the land and building in Patterson
Lakes in outer Melbourne to the providers Illawong Retirement
Group Pty Ltd, told The Daily Telegraph he was shocked at the
treatment meted out to the 57 residents.

He said it was not feasible to
allow the current proprietors to continue to operate the home and
it would be too traumatic to move the frail residents to another
home.Landlord to step in. Daily Telegraph February 29,
2000

Mar 2000 Residents
to be moved

The Victorian Government
has offered to help move residents out of Melbourne's
controversial Riverside Nursing home tomorrow.

"We have offered to help with
transport," a state government spokeswoman said today.

All of the nursing home's 57
residents were expected to be moved to an undisclosed location,
the spokeswoman said.

The decision to move the
residents, who were bathed by staff in a kerosene solution to
treat scabies, was taken by the federal government.State govt ready to help evacuation of elderly - minister
Australian Associated Press March 5, 2000

Mar 2000 But Bishop
refuses to confirm it

Residents of a Victorian
nursing home and their families were left distressed and confused
last night after the Federal Aged Care Minister, Mrs Bronwyn
Bishop, refused to confirm whether they would be moved to
alternative accommodation today.

Mrs Bishop, citing unspecified
legal reasons, said she could not preempt her department's
decision on the future of Riverside Nursing Home in Patterson
Lakes.

While Mrs Bishop attacked the
Victorian Government for suggesting the relocation of the 57
residents was imminent, state authorities confirmed that a fleet
of transport vehicles, doctors, nurses and counsellors were on
standby.Residents Angry Over Bishop's Silence The Age March 6,
2000

Mar 2000 Residents
relatives strongly apposed to moving

Residents at a Melbourne
nursing home who were bathed in a kerosene solution earlier this
year should not be moved to alternative accommodation, some of
their relatives said today.

"Nobody, nobody - let me
reiterate, nobody - wants their families moved," said Marita
Heitman, daughter of one elderly woman at the Riverside Nursing
Home at Patterson Lakes in Melbourne's south-east.
------------------
Ms Heitman said relatives met federal government representatives
last night after they became alarmed at reports that the residents
would be evacuated by ambulance as early as today.
--------------------------
But Ms Heitman said the meeting had left the relatives' questions
unanswered.
-----------------------------
"Most of the questions put forward to those representing the
government and the Health Department were answered with: `We
cannot tell you. We do not know'."
-----------------------
"We have husbands and wives who live in units next door who put up
$106,000 bond to live next door to that home so they could be next
to their wives or husbands.

"If they're moved, as we were
(led) to think, to St Vincent's (Hospital, inner Melbourne), my
goodness, nobody can visit their loved ones and those loved ones
will pass away.

Another relative of a resident,
Joe Taranto said there were many other nursing homes that were
worse than Riverside.

"My concern is: where to? There
are 29 other nursing homes that supposedly are worse than this
one."Relatives oppose evacuation of elderly 'kerosene' residents
Australian Associated Press March 6, 2000

Mar 2000 Bishop
evacuates the home

Mrs Bishop said today that
all the frail, elderly residents of the home, at Patterson Lakes
in Melbourne's south east, were being evacuated to St Vincent's
Hospital in Fitzroy.
--------------------
"The decision was not taken lightly - the delegate decided that
despite the agency scrutiny which the Riverside care providers had
been under, they had failed to improve their care practices and
posed a serious risk to the health and safety of the
residents."
-------------------
Mrs Bishop said the residents would be in the care of the Sisters
of Charity at St Vincent's Hospital.13 problems made nursing home a "severe risk" - Aust's
Bishop Australian Associated Press March 6, 2000

Mar 2000 Residents
refuse to leave

Several elderly residents
were moved from Melbourne's troubled Riverside Nursing Home today
but a stalemate has set in over the fate of dozens more.
-----------------
A spokesman for relatives opposing the evacution, Tony Faella,
said several residents had relented but most would refuse to
go.

He said talks over the fate of
the remaining 50 or so residents would continue through the
afternoon.Several more residents moved from home Australian
Associated Press March 6, 2000

Mar 2000 Trauma for
everyone

Emotions ran high at
Melbourne's Riverside Nursing Home today as frail, sometimes
sobbing, elderly residents tried to come to terms with the likely
loss of the place they call home.

The prospect of a sudden move to
a strange new facility in the city, a long way from relatives, was
traumatic for many of the 57 residents, many aged in their 80s and
90s.
----------------------------------
Several relatives quietly carried away personal items that had
made Riverside a more comforting place - a family photograph, a
familiar painting, a portable fan.

For relatives, the dramatic
events at Riverside seemed like a political and media circus, in
which their personal concerns for a frail relative were shunted
aside.

Where would their relatives go
after being temporarily placed at St Vincent's Hospital in central
Melbourne? Was it true that many other nursing homes were worse
than Riverside? How would their mother or father cope with the
upheaval? How much would a new place cost?Sobbing old folk face traumatic departure Australian
Associated Press March 6, 2000

Mar 2000 Tears and
more tears

Inside Riverside, relatives
fight with bureaucrats.
---------------------------
Many think the shock of such a suddenly ordered move will kill
father, mother, aunt ...

It's a cruel and heart-rending
stand-off.

Inside the home the mood is
"emotionally distraught," says Sandy May.

She was appointed as the home's
nursing superintendent late last week, and has worked day and
night with people like counsellor Pat Timoney to comfort the
afflicted and bring some kind of sense to the panic and disorder
at Riverside.

"The nursing staff are
absolutely shell-shocked," she says. "There is enormous grief
going on inside these walls.

"There are relatives crying,
patients crying because they don't know what is going on, and the
staff who know and love the old people crying because of what is
happening to them and also because they have lost their
jobs."

An old lady, white-haired,
frail, has been wheeled out the main door. She looks confused,
puzzled, as two big ambulance attendants lift her gently and
settle her inside what is termed a patient transfer
vehicle.

SHE is strapped in tight. There
are two other old people, confused, puzzled, already lying on
stretchers in the vehicle.

Staff in tears give those in the
vehicle little waves goodbye.

One of the attendants goes back
inside the home to pick up the old lady's personal
things.

There is a little shiny shopping
bag, the sort of glossy thing they put make-up in at perfume
counters at department stores.

A little beauty bag from a long
time ago.

And her pillow to prop her up in
bed. A big creamy pillow with hand-embroidered lace edging.
-----------------------------
FIFTY-THREE residents remain in Riverside as the bureaucrats, led
by Maree Bowman, state manager of the federal department of Health
and Aged Care, plead with the relatives to give permission for the
53 to be moved.

Ms Bowman, like her minister,
fails to make a public appearance.

A spokeswoman for the
department's public affairs unit flaps helplessly around in the
background. She doesn't want to be photographed.
--------------------
JESSIE Ashley, 91, sits erect in her wheelchair, blue and red wrap
around her shoulders, tartan rug around her knees.

"I don't think I'd be too keen
on moving," says Jessie. "The politicians should be in the same
boat as I am. I don't want to go ... no! No!"
-------------------------------
Her (another resident) daughter sobs as they turn away:
"One day you will all have to face something like this. You will
all have to find somewhere for your loved ones when they grow old
... all of you!"

Mother and daughter walk, oh so
slowly, back into Riverside.Hearts break in cruel bungle Herald-Sun March 7,
2000

Mar 2000 Twenty hold
out

About 20 residents of the
Riverside Nursing home in Melbourne were yesterday refusing to
leave, with one saying he would have to be carried out in a
coffin.

"They can take me out in a
coffin. It's the only way they'll get me out of here," he told
reporters.20 residents refuse to leave Aust nursing home Australian
Associated Press March 7, 2000

Mar 2000 To St
Vincent's hospital

The department has promised
that the patients will stay a maximum of four weeks and that they
will be given priority for nursing home vacancies. The hospital
has created two 30-bed care units. Both will be staffed well above
the normal levels required of a nursing home, but Ms Cross warned
that as the patients were frail, elderly and in some cases ill, it
would not be unexpected if one or two died.
----------------------
Ambulances ferried 18 residents, some of them sobbing, to St
Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne during the day while aged-care
officials continued to negotiate with relatives of another 27 who
were refusing to leave the home. Late yesterday 10 more agreed to
evacuate the home.Nursing home stand-off. The Australian March 7,
2000

Mar 2000 Last one
leaves

The final resident at the
home in Patterson Lakes, in Melbourne's south-east, agreed to
leave the facility late yesterday.Aust nursing homes evacuated as legal challenge mounted.
Australian Associated Press March 8, 2000

Mar 2000 Rumours of
another move

RIVERSIDE nursing home
residents may be forced to move again, only weeks after they were
evacuated to St Vincent's Hospital.

The Federal Government is
considering shifting the 57 frail and elderly residents to nearby
Mercy Hospital in East Melbourne.
---------------------
A nurse who worked at Riverside for 17 1/2 years - - - - - - "But
there was no need for the home to close. The residents got a lot
of loving care.

"The Commonwealth just needed to
appoint an administrator to fix the place up."Evacuees face hospital trek Sunday Herald Sun March 12,
2000

The Residents were moved into other nursing
homes as soon as space could be found. Nearby Ripplebrook
had just been opened by another dodgy operator and there were 30
places there. Twenty agreed to go there.

It was not long before 18 still there were
involved in another scandal about standards of care and another
bankruptcy. Ripplebrook and another two homes owned by linked
companies in liquidation were at the heart of this new
scandal.

This is now a competitive marketplace where
we have winners and losers. This is how the system is supposed to
select for the best operators and eliminate the worst at least so the
minister for health Dr
Wooldridge told us in May 1996. It is
what we should expect in a market system --- but what about the Human
costs for those who are part of this process. Riverside was simply
the first of a series of traumatic scandals as dysfunctional
commercial enterprises went wrong.

Mar 2000 Places at
Ripplebrook

Former residents of the
Riverside Nursing Home will be offered places at a new nursing
home in Carrum Downs, the Federal Government said
yesterday.

The news has met with mixed
reactions from the residents' families, whose preference had been
for the Government to allow the controversial Patterson Lakes home
to continue operating after a $1million overhaul. Health officials
yesterday said they had rejected the owner's bid to upgrade and
reopen the home.

The Department of Health and
Aged Care said that 30 places would be available at Ripplebrook
Village, seven kilometres from Riverside, within the next two
weeks. However, even if 30 places are taken, 20 former Riverside
residents will still be left seeking accommodation.
-----------------------
The state manager of the Department, Ms Maree Bowman, would not
comment on why the Riverside owner's plan to improve the home had
been rejected. But she said Ripplebrook was new and would offer
the residents single-room accommodation.Aged Residents Get New Home The Age March 30,
2000

Jan 2003
Rippplebrook became another of the
scandals

Former residents of the
infamous Riverside Nursing Home were still living in poor
accommodation more than two years after being rehoused, according
to a report by the aged-care watchdog.

The Federal Government spent
$65,000 upgrading Ripplebrook to house the new residents and about
18 have remained living there.

But reports from the Aged Care
Standards and Accreditation Agency found Ripplebrook had been
consistently failing to meet standards set by the
government.

In November, the home failed
five of 44 accreditation standards.

It also failed to meet some
criteria in checks in both August and December 2001.Former Riverside residents still in substandard housing
Australian Associated Press General News January 17,
2003

May 2003 Riverside
residents face eviction from Ripplebrook
again

But residents and their
families - some of them veterans of the kerosene bath scandal -
face an agonising wait for certainty as administrators try to sell
the homes to government-approved operators.Elderly face grim future Herald-Sun May 23, 2003

People with knowledge and experience viewed
what was happening with alarm.

Mar 2000 Experts
have reservations about the closure

Frail patients evacuated
from the Riverside Nursing Home into temporary care at St
Vincent's Hospital would find it traumatic to be moved a second
time, aged-care experts said yesterday.

They said an acute nursing bed
shortage meant it could take the Federal Government longer than a
month to find suitable permanent accommodation.Nursing home stand-off. The Australian March 7,
2000

Mar 2000 Trauma of
transfer

And the director of the
Australian Council of the Ageing, Mr Denys Correll, said
experience showed that the trauma of the transfer of such
vulnerable patients would result in increased risks of sickness
and death.Frail, Ill, And Facing The Unknown Sydney Morning Herald
March 7, 2000

Mar 2000 Experts
critical of closure

But the national executive
director for the Council on the Ageing, Mr Denys Correll, said the
Commonwealth should have done more to keep the residents at
Riverside because moving them could prove fatal.

Mr Correll said most Melbourne
nursing homes were almost full, with a 96 to 98per cent occupancy
rate, and it would have been better to have put in new management
and extra staff at Riverside. He said if the Commonwealth did not
have the power to do this, the relevant act should be urgently
reviewed.
---------------------
Dr Richard Whiting, a consultant geriatrician at the North West
health care network, said hospitals were not ideal places for
elderly people, especially those with dementia.

``People take a while to adjust
to new surroundings if they are demented ... and two moves is not
a good idea,'' he said.Relocating Frail A Risk, Experts Say The Age March 7,
2000

Mar 2000 Closure
condemned

The residents of Riverside
nursing home are facing two moves: already transferred to
Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital and eventually to another
nursing home. This is despite the fact that about 70 per cent of
them are likely to have moderate to advanced dementia, and people
with dementia do not tolerate changes to their routine or their
environment. They will most likely become more confused and
disturbed.
------------------------
Then there is family involvement. If management had met the family
support group and addressed their concerns, then Riverside might
have been avoided.The Aged Need More Care Sydney Morning Herald March 10,
2000 BY Professor Henry Brodaty who is Professor of
Psychogeriatrics At The University of NSW. Lewis Kaplan is chief
executive of the Alzheimer's association NSW.

Lawyers for the owners struggled to have the
departments decisions overturned. Relatives consulted their
lawyers too.

Mar 2000 Residents
consult lawyers

Lawyers representing two
residents refusing to move from Riverside Nursing Home will arrive
at the facility at 5pm (AEDT) today to offer advice on their
clients' rights.

A spokesman for the residents,
Tony Faella, told reporters the two elderly women were "holding
out".

Mr Faella would not be specific
on the legal advice being sought.Holdout residents to consult lawyers Australian Associated
Press March 7, 2000

Mar 2000 Riverside
appeals

RIVERSIDE Nursing Home's
lawyers will today make an 11th hour bid to keep the home
open.

An injunction to stay the
Federal Government's decision to stop the home's funding will be
sought in the Federal Court.
---------------------
"The residents have decided they want to stay, and if they want to
stay we want to give them that opportunity," lawyer Graeme Efron
said.Desperate bid to keep home open. Herald-Sun March 7,
2000

Mar 200 Appeals the
closure

Riverside Nursing Care Pty
today lodged an appeal in the Federal Court applying for a review
of the closure ordered by Mrs Bishop early last week.Riverside operators lodge court action Australian
Associated Press March 16, 2000

Apr 2000 Appeal
rejected

Federal Court Justice Ross
Sundberg rejected Riverside's application to be temporarily
reopened pending the full hearing of its claim that the federal
government wrongfully shut it down last month.Riverside loses court bid to be reopened Australian
Associated Press April 7, 2000

A fascinating insight into the fatally flawed
political and economic thinking about health and aged care comes from
the response of the residents and their relatives.

This "econobabble" thinking was expressed
persuasively by Dr
Michael Wooldridge when he became
minister for health in 1996. He stressed the importance of
competition and choice in making the system work. To choose you need
knowledge and understanding and the extent that that was lacking is
obvious to those in the sector. When it came to the hide of
Wooldridge's close colleague, the minister of aged care, the
residents choice to stay in Riverside were treated in the most
cavalier fashion.

Above all else Riverside illustrates the
barrenness of the ideological belief that the customer controls and
regulates. A conspiracy theory might speculate whether the
accreditation agency was a tool of the minister and that the last
damning report was a beat up to shut the home down and get the whole
business wrapped up as quickly as possible.

That said there can be no doubt that the care
provided and the facilities at this home were extremely poor and a
threat to the lives and wellbeing of the residents. Yet the residents
and their families were in many ways unaware of this. They were loyal
to the owner and the nurses. They were satisfied with their care and
critical of regulators. They understood care very
differently.

I have written on another page about the
divide in
perceptions between corporate
managers and the market on one side and nurses and residents on the
other. Here we have another divide between ordinary people and the
authorities whose understandings of hygiene and safety are very
different. Although the nurses have the knowledge to understand, and
they were the people who complained about the home, they too have a
very different set of understandings. These are focused on people and
their needs as contrasted with those embracing administrative process
and political pressure.

These people live in different worlds. The
word "care" and its meanings are the rationale for nurses careers and
the way in which they define their lives. Care is an all encompassing
experience for residents and their families. Care is a word with
little real meaning in the decision making world of government,
market, and agencies. When used it is associated with standards,
efficiency and productivity - words which are meaningless to those
who live in the worlds of care.

Those making decisions are incapable of
understanding this fundamental difference. As a consequence care as
understood in the nursing homes has no impact on decisions. We see
the same revealing phenomenon in the Hastings
Regional Nursing Home closure in
2006. I have discussed this particular divide in more depth
there.

Feb 2000 Residents
unhappy

FAMILIES of Riverside
Nursing Home residents yesterday questioned why it had been the
one chosen for a snap inspection.

The husband of one of the
residents said he knew there had been a few complaints, including
lack of care and hygiene. "And residents' dignity was the main
one," he said.Queries over choice Herald-Sun February 18, 2000

Mar 2000 Residents
happy with care

Meanwhile, several elderly
residents emerged from the nursing home to tell reporters that
they were very happy with the standard of care at the nursing
home.

Jessie Ashley, 91, said the
standard of nursing was "unparallelled" and she did not want to be
moved from the home.

Kay Rossborough, the mother of a
resident Elaine Hall, 86, stood next to her mother, claiming that
the kerosene baths had been exaggerated.

Ms Rossborough said her mother
had received a kerosene bath and had suffered no ill effects that
she knew of.Several more residents moved from home Australian
Associated Press March 6, 2000

Mar 2000 The Age
reports the divide in perceptions

On Sunday about 60
relatives confronted two representatives of the Department of
Health and Aged Care, furious that their loved ones would be moved
from the place they called home. They said they were being used as
a political football.
--------------------------
The relatives gave rousing speeches in praise of the staff and the
standard of care at the home. One man wept as he expressed his
hope that his wife would not be moved. A woman said she had phoned
the Health Department to see who would be responsible if her
mother's condition deteriorated as a result of the
move.

Despite the stories that had
appeared over the past two weeks in a largely indignant media, it
was clear that these relatives had an unshaken faith in the home
and believed their loved ones were happy and mostly well cared
for. One woman said she had checked out 10 homes before deciding
on Riverside, and that her mother told her she was treated like a
queen there.

How can this be reconciled? How
can there be such a disparity between the outraged consensus in
the media and those basing their opinion on the evidence of their
eyes and the testimony of their relatives?
---------------------
Rather than tackle the complexity of the situation - poor
management, inadequate staffing levels and a lack of experienced
nurses - the story kicked into play a familiar set of
black-and-white stereotypes and a common chain of events.Of Kerosene Baths And Harsh Truths The Age March 7,
2000

Mar 2000 Eviction
more traumatic than kerosine baths

Riverside's acting director
of nursing, Sandra May, described the eviction as "probably the
most disturbing thing" she had witnessed and accused the
department of causing more trauma to residents than the nursing
home.

"I have been told some residents
are having their minds made up for them," she said. "Definitely
there has been coercion - I would say persuasive coercion and
probably from the best of motives."Bishop's nursing home nightmare deepens The Australian
March 8, 2000

Outside empty bedrooms, the beds
not yet stripped, no vitriol was spared in the universal
condemnation of the decision that they claimed robbed them of the
right to make up their own minds.

But from inside came snippets of
the real tragedy: an elderly couple who came together late in life
holding hands in their wheelchairs, refusing to let go.

A man crying because he didn't
know when or where he was going.The many tragedies of eviction. The Australian March 8,
2000

Mar 2000 How
resident's family saw the home

"The home for me
(daughter of resident who died) was very clean, the nurses
were very warm and they cared about the people there," she
said.

"We wanted someone to look after
her, to feed her and keep her clean. When I heard about the
kerosene baths I was shocked because I had no idea, whatsoever. I
could not believe it was possible."Family waits for verdict Herald-Sun March 10,
2000

The residents and families inability to
appreciate the neglect in Riverside and their vulnerability is
further illustrated by what happened when the residents received
proper care. Over-sedation is a common failing in aged care,
particularly in nursing homes. It makes managing a large work load of
aged residents far easier for overworked staff. This results in
mental and physical inactivity and a failure to eat or drink. The
consequences are mental deterioration, weight loss, dehydration,
muscle wasting, weakness, immobility, pressure sores and early death.
This seems to have been a problem at Riverside.

When their care and drug regimes were
reviewed by trained geriatric staff, residents woke up, took an
interest and became more mobile refuting the doomsayers about moving
the residents.

The concerns about moving the elderly and the
demented were justified as other things being equal they are valid.
We should not blame the staff in the nursing homes, most of whom had
received 6 weeks training contrasted with up to 10 years for the
geriatricians. The sheer lunacy of the belief that residents can be
cared for by untrained and unskilled staff is well illustrated by
what happened. None of this excuses the ineptitude with which it was
done.

After a few weeks the residents were shunted
off to other "Riversides" like Ripplebrook
where they were at risk of the same sort of care.

RELATIVES feared that
moving Melbourne's Riverside Nursing Home residents would kill
them. But just 10 days after the move, nursing staff say the
improvement shown by some of them is so remarkable they are
comparing it to the restoration of senses depicted in the Robert
De Niro movie Awakenings.

Marita Heitman stopped hoping
her mother would recognise her at least 12 months ago, assuming it
was the dementia that had ravaged her spirit.

Until last week.

"I saw my mum in St Vincent's
and burst into tears. Her eyes were fully open for the first time
in more than a year," she said.
----------------------------
In that short time, one man who could not walk without help is now
moving alone - so independently, in fact, that he must wear a
personal security alarm in his temporary St Vincent's home because
he's proved to be a "natural wanderer".

Skin conditions have also
cleared and appetites improved.

These are not miracles, though
even St Vincent's staff can barely believe their eyes.

"I really think it's a bit like
an Awakenings," the hospital's clinical director of support
services Sue Blake said yesterday.

"There's people who could barely
walk that are now walking almost unaided, a significant number who
are now feeding themselves that previously took no interest in
food."

The improvements are due to
better exercise, nutrition and, most importantly, changes in
medication.

A thorough medical assessment of
all 53 patients accommodated at St Vincent's until permanent
nursing home places could be found for them revealed almost all
were heavily sedated.

"What we found is most of them
were either overmedicated or receiving inappropriate medication,"
St Vincent's aged-care chief executive Kerrie Cross
said.

"We did expect residents to
improve once they settled down but we've seen some remarkable
transformations in the health and well-being of residents, and
relatives have commented on that."

From all that Ms Cross has
already seen, there is no doubt in her mind that despite the
initial trauma it caused, federal Aged Care Minister Bronwyn
Bishop did the right thing by revoking the Riverside proprietors'
licence.

Joe West, 64, is equally
convinced.

Eighteen months ago he entered
Riverside to help mend a broken hip and in that time developed
such horrific foot ulcers, "the size of CDs", that he could barely
walk.

Now, on the mend, and one of
only a few residents not suffering some degree of dementia, he
regularly takes himself down in the lifts of St Vincent's for a
cigarette and some sunshine.Awakening for Riverside patients / THE NURSING HOME SCANDAL
The Australian March 18, 2000

The governments response and the actions
taken had all the hallmarks of panic driven political expediency.
Government ministers and their bureaucratic creations were trapped in
a situation of their own construction.

The decisions were taken by an inept self
interested politically ambitious minister with her future in tatters.
Her failures gave her opponents fuel. She did not consult with
knowledgeable people who could have advised - probably because they
were among her strongest critics. We should not blame her. She too is
a victim of the system, a system which selects for people with her
abilities and weaknesses and which restricts her options. Australians
have a political system based on narrow belief systems, competition,
naked ambition and expediency. They deserve a system which selects
for politicians motivated by objectivity, integrity and a primary
commitment to serve. Bishop and her colleague Dr Wooldridge are
trapped in it. They deserve our sympathy.

A nurse who was caught up in all this
expressed it succinctly. Journalists commented on it. The nursing
director appointed by the department was even more graphic. Her
comments are remarkably perceptive as she identifies this as a
nightmare consequence of social processes over which no one has
control and in which all become helpless participants.

Mar 2000 Political
expediency

A registered nurse who has
worked at Riverside for more than seven years said yesterday that
staff believed the sudden closure of Riverside was ``political
expediency''. ``Rosie'', who asked not to have her real name used,
said conditions at the home, while far from ideal, were better
than 12 months ago when the home was put into liquidation, but the
Federal Government, embarrassed about the disclosure that
residents had been given kerosene baths to treat scabies, was
acting precipitously.Relocating Frail A Risk, Experts Say The Age March 7,
2000

Mar 2000 Pawns in a
political game

Emotionally distraught
relatives argued passionately that their family members were being
used as pawns in a political game.

"It is really inhumane, you
wouldn't even do it to an animal what they are doing here,"
relative Kaye Rossborough said.

Riverside landlord Chris Cooper
said he wrote to the federal Government 10 days ago offering to
take over and upgrade the home, but was knocked back. He said he
had made a similar offer 18 months ago, when problems at Riverside
were reported.Nursing home stand-off. The Australian March 7,
2000

Mar 2000 Political
stunt

"This has been a political
stunt which is going to cost people jobs."

She (Nursing Federation
president Jill Illiffe) said such a decision should only have
been made had there been no other options available to the
department.

"The Government could easily
have brought in extra nursing staff or another management
structure to keep the place going and not put these elderly people
through a traumatic move," she said.Nurses demand a safety net. The Australian March 7,
2000

Mar 2000 A cruel
bungle

The crow pecks through a
succession of black plastic rubbish bags, explores their contents,
discards some, selects some and savors some, perched undisturbed
on the dumpster as human beings weep openly nearby.

Dumped somewhere else. Out of
sight, out of mind of the rest of us.Hearts break in cruel bungle Herald-Sun March 7,
2000

Mar 2000 New
administrator "a bureaucratic process that's taken on
it's own life"

The troubled Riverside
Nursing Home had become a "war zone" where at least nine defiant
residents were planning to stay, the interim director of nursing
said today.

Sandy May, appointed last week
after reports that residents had been bathed in kerosene, said
some residents had been successfully transported from the ailing
home to St Vincent's Hospital.
--------------------
"The atmosphere in the home today is very demoralised, very sad, a
bit like a post-war zone," Ms May said at the scene.

She said residents and their
families were extremely upset at Federal Health Minister Bronwyn
Bishop's snap decision to evacuate the home yesterday.

"This is without precedent in
my nursing career; I've never seen a situation like this - it's
like a bureaucratic process that's taken on it's own life," she
later told 3AW.

"It's sucking up people like
a vortex and everyone seems powerless to stop it," she
said.

"Everyone's needing crisis
counselling at the moment - everybody."
-----------------------------
"I can't believe that in a democracy we've allowed a situation
where bureaucracy has become rampant and taken on a life of its
own," she said."In other words, the process is more important than the
person...I mean this is like judgment at Nuremberg or
something (the Nazi war trials after World War 11)."
----------------------------------
"There is a chronic nursing shortage; there's a chronic lack of
proper funding for aged care - aged care has been put in the
bottom drawer for so many, many years - not just Bronwyn Bishop
but all the health ministers before her are equally to
blame."

And she denied Mrs Bishop's
claim yesterday that the patient's lives were at risk.

"These patients are not at life
and death risk in the immediate situation."Aust nursing home "a war zone", says interim director.
Australian Associated Press March 7, 2000

Mar 2000 Lessons
from Riverside

Much can be learnt from the
Riverside debacle. Recalcitrant poor performers should be driven
out. A good home can make a huge difference to residents'
behaviour, mood and enjoyment. But relatives and residents need
time, a plan, and an iron-clad promise of better care.Be It Ever So Awful: No Place Like Home Sydney Morning
Herald March 11, 2000(for more from this article click
here)

While the department sat on its hands and the
union nagged them, the home threatened to sack the nurses if it found
out who they were. This has been the usual response of commercial and
government health care groups to nurses who speak out or
complain.

In a functioning system those who draw
attention to failures or risks should be welcomed. Market style
management ensures that this does not happen, even when it is the
public system which is managed this way. (see Dr
Death scandal in
Queensland)

In this case the whistle blowers paid the
price anyway. Their jobs vanished when the home was closed and the
company entered receivership. The action still cost them their
jobs.

Government relief was slow in coming and then
was delayed by a dispute with the states. These nurses had caused the
government acute embarrassment and a clear message was sent to anyone
else who contemplated doing anything like this again.

Feb 2000 Threat to
sack whistle blowers

About a week later, the
union again contacted the investigator, who confirmed there had
been further contact with staff. But it turns out that still,
after numerous complaints and several weeks, no Government
inspector had visited the nursing home about the kerosene baths -
although a threat allegedly was made by nursing home staff to sack
the whistleblowers if their identities were uncovered.A Call That Took A Month To Answer The Age February 26,
2000

Mar 2000
Whistleblowers effectively sacked

"Isn't it true that the
nurses who refused to participate in the kerosene baths, who
reported the incident to the proper complaints mechanism and
waited 50 days for action, have now effectively been sacked by the
actions of the Minister for Aged Care?" he told the
Senate.

"What message does this send to
employees of nursing homes reporting abuse or mistreatment of the
elderly?"

He asked government frontbencher
John Herron, representing Mrs Bishop in the Senate, to guarantee
staff prepared to stay behind and care for residents refusing to
leave would receive their normal wages.Riverside workers sacked for doing the right thing
Australian Associated Press March 7, 2000

Mar 2000 Future
whistlebowers turned off

There were also fears the
decision to close the home might prevent other whistleblowers from
coming forward.
------------------------------
Nursing Federation president Jill Illiffe yesterday said the
decision to close Riverside had created a climate of fear among
nurses.

"Everybody is so toey and
terrified that if they make a complaint either they will lose
their job or their nursing homes will be shut down," Ms Illiffe
said.Nurses demand a safety net. The Australian March 7,
2000

Nursing staff are the face of the homes. They
interact with patients and their relatives. They are the recipients
of the anger and frustration when it boils over. Their jobs, their
security and their futures are at risk. With the company they work
for bankrupts they deserve protection. Three months later Riverside
nurses access to funds set up specifically for situations like this
was still up in the air.

Mar 2000 Some blamed
the nurses

Meanwhile, nursing staff at
Riverside had their own concerns, defending themselves against
claims they had treated the residents badly and fearing they could
go unpaid for two weeks and would miss out on entitlements.

The day's events laid bare a sad
dimension of a so-called civilised society that would like to
believe the least it could do was take good and gentle care of its
elders.Sobbing old folk face traumatic departure Australian
Associated Press March 6, 2000

Mar 2000 Unions
press government after closure of
Riverside

The nurses' union today
demanded the federal government honour the entitlements of workers
employed at the Riverside Nursing Home, which was shut down
today.

Australian Nursing Federation
(ANF) Victorian secretary Hannah Sellers said nurses and care
workers had lost their jobs when the government decided to revoke
the home's licence.Riverside nurses want entitlements, says union Australian
Associated Press March 6, 2000

Mar 2000 Nurses may
lose payments

SACKED workers at the
Riverside Nursing Home have asked the Prime Minister to give a
commitment that their outstanding entitlements, under threat
following the Government's decision to shut the home, will be
protected.

Hannah Sellers from the
Australian Nursing Federation yesterday said about 80 carers,
nurses and kitchen staff stand to lose up to $500,000 in
entitlements if the federal Government does not step in.Nurses demand a safety net. The Australian March 7,
2000

Apr 2000 $319,600 in
payments threatened

Documents from Riverside
Nursing Care Pty Ltd, which ran the home until it was closed on
March 6, show it owes $319,600 in wages and entitlements to 79
former staff.

One long-term employee is owed
more than $81,000, including nearly $24,000 in long-service
leave.

Two others are owed about
$20,000 each, three $10,000, while most are owed an average of
$4000.

Assistant secretary of the
Victorian branch of the Australian Nursing Federation Hannah
Sellers said she had written to Mrs Bishop on March 6 seeking a
commitment from the government that the staff would receive their
entitlements.Kero bath documents held back Herald-Sun April 5,
2000

Apr 2000 Nurses
losing out in government disputes

THE Federal Government has
confirmed many of the nurses sacked after the closure of the
Riverside Nursing home have applied for safety net
compensation.
But a row between the states and the Commonwealth threatens to
halve their potential payout.
---------------
But Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith insists that payouts
will be halved unless the states contribute 50 per of the cost of
the scheme.

Several states have refused to
contribute, argue the scheme should be funded by employers, not
taxpayers.Nurse payout threat Herald-Sun April 27, 2000

Jun 2000 Staff lost
$320,000

Former staff of the
Victorian nursing home which was closed after patients were given
kerosene baths have been left $320,000 out of pocket, parliament
heard today.
-----------------------
"Can he explain why the Minister for Aged Care (Bronwyn Bishop)
has not even bothered to respond to three requests from the
(Australian Nursing Federation) calling on the Commonwealth to
take some responsibility," Senator Evans said.

"Don't the former staff of
Riverside deserve much better, particularly as some of them are
responsible for reporting the poor care and the kerosene bath
incident to the appropriate authorities?"
-------------------------
"That has been referred on and the department is investigating
that to see how that can be ameliorated because it is a very
serious concern," Senator Herron said.Former Riverside nursing home staff lost $320,000
Australian Associated Press June 8, 2000

Mar 2000 Nurse
administrator to be investigated -- but not the minister,
who bungled as much

THE director of nursing at
the deregistered Riverside Nursing Home is being investigated for
alleged professional misconduct.
--------------------------
Now the board has issued an appeal through the Herald Sun for
former nursing staff to come forward and tell the board their side
of the story.Riverside appeal Herald-Sun March 11, 2000

One of the consequences of the closure of
Riverside was a disruption of the lives of elderly couples who had
carefully planned their old age so that they would still be in
frequent contact and be able to support one another. The parlous
state of the neglected building and the sale of some of their
belongings would leave a bitter taste.

Mar 2000 Couples
forced apart

Mr Efron said the owners
were concerned about people who had bought apartments next to
Riverside, at the Illawong Retirement Village, to be close to
relatives in the nursing home and guaranteed a place in the home
later on. The trust that owns the village is linked to the trust
that owns the nursing home.Owners `ignored' Riverside's needs. The Australian March
11, 2000

Mar 2000 An
example

BILL and Anna Juler
believed they had secured something far more important than new
accommodation when they moved into the Illawong Retirement Complex
last October.

For their $105,000 down payment,
Bill moved into a serviced apartment in the retirement village and
Anna to the adjoining Riverside Nursing Home.

More importantly, that money
guaranteed that there would be a bed assured for Bill at
Riverside, should the day arrive when he might also need 24-hour
nursing care.

But when Federal Aged Care
Minister Bronwyn Bishop ordered Riverside be closed this month,
she left Bill and dozens of fellow Illawong residents in a
perilous position.
---------------------------
At 87, the retired accountant is articulate and independent. But
many in the retirement village are well into their 90s, including
one 96-year-old woman who moved in more than 20 years
ago.

"There's another chap who eats
at my table who was a prisoner of war and he's been at Illawong
for 10 years," Bill said yesterday.

"They're all waiting for their
turn to go into the nursing home should anything happen to them
... but it's not there for them now."

Bill's situation is further
complicated by the fact that Anna has since been moved to
temporary accommodation an hour away at St Vincent's Hospital. He
has no idea where she will go after that.Those the Riverside scandal left behind The Australian
March 22, 2000

May 2000 Residents
property sold off

A FIRE sale of Riverside
Nursing Home remnants has added to the pain for uprooted
residents.

Clearly named personal property,
including medical aids, was sold as part of an auction that raised
about $20,000 last Tuesday.

And his livid grandson, Ricky
Turner, believes other former residents lost expensive
items.

"Wheelchairs with names and
stuff on them went for a virtual fire sale price," Mr Turner
said.

Former residents and their
families were not told of the auction.

The defunct home's
administrator, David Lofthouse, yesterday admitted residents'
property might have been sold.
-----------------------
"We didn't go and take every (item) and see if there was a label
on," he said. "We probably haven't gone around and checked every
cushion."Anger over fire sale at Riverside Herald-Sun May 9,
2000

Feb 2003 Riverside
to be replaced by unit development

A PATTERSON Lakes nursing
home at the centre of the kerosene baths scandal has been
earmarked for a large-scale housing development.

Residents are angered by a
proposal to build a 55-unit development on the site of the former
Riverside Nursing Home.Riverside plan anger Mordialloc Chelsea News February 19,
2003

Oct 2003 Had become
an eyesore

THE eyesore that is the
former Riverside Nursing Home building in Patterson Lakes may soon
be torn down.

Local residents and people who
walk by the site along Patterson River have complained about the
condition of the building. It has been left to rot and is a
regular target for vandals.
------------------------
The man said he had seen syringes and prescription bottles inside
the building, some with former residents' names still on
them.

"I think it's offensive to the
people who used to live there," he said.Eyesore going Frankston Standard October 6, 2003

For Updates:- A good way to check for
recent developments in aged care is to go to the aged
care crisis group's search page and enter the name of the company, nursing
home or key words relating to any other matter in the search box. Most significant
press reports are flagged there. The aged
care crisis web site has recently been restructured and some of the older
links used from this site may not
work.